The appointment of Jeff Zucker to head CNN’s operations worldwide is stunning for several reasons. Zucker is renowned for failing upwards (after a brilliant hands-on performance as a young producer at NBC’s “Today,” he had many missteps at NBC Entertainment and a disastrous reign in the top management job at the Peacock network). And he’s more businessman than news guy. That seems to be what CNN’s higher ups at Turner Broadcasting want.

In a conference call with reporters Thursday, Zucker owned his mistakes at NBC (he didn’t need to mention the Leno debacle, the lack of drama development that resulted, or the fact that NBC went from 1st to 4th under his reign). And he stated his intention to broaden the definition of news at CNN. “News is about more than politics and war,” he said more than once. The goal is to make CNN “vibrant” and “exciting”–even on slow news days, when CNN isn’t the go-to choice.

Will a broader range of talent show up on CNN under Zucker? Will his wider definition of news mean more human interest/softer stories? Might he launch a new prime time show with bigger names? Can he “supersize” Anderson Cooper? Will he hire Katie Couric once her syndication contract ends? (He’ll leave “Katie” as a producer mid-January.) The news surrounding the news is going to be fun to watch.

If you ignored the numbers, maps, percentages and exit polls, and concentrated solely on the tone of the TV and cable news teams, the story of Election night 2012 was clear from the start.

Beginning early in the evening, the broadcasters and guest commentators on Fox News looked glum, sounded pessimistic and, led by Bill O’Reilly, started making excuses. (Hurricane Sandy swept Obama into office!) Assuming they had access to more information than we did, the dour tone on Fox indicated things were not going well for Gov. Romney. While the other networks stuck to impartial objectivity, Fox News anchors and guests let themselves sound defeated.

The Empire State Building will trot out its new LED display tonight with a handy tabulation of the electoral vote totals.

As each state is projected by CNN and electoral votes are allocated to the candidates, a vertical LED-illuminated “meter” located atop the spire of the building will display CNN’s running tally of the race to 270. CNN has exclusive rights to display the totals on the building.

Once the result is known, the top tower lights will change to President Obama blue or Gov. Romney red.

CNN encourages you to vote early and often — up to 10 times a day. Not for any elected official, of course, but for its “CNN Heroes.” Nominees were announced Thursday, including Scott Strode of Boulder who launched Phoenix Multisport. Each Top 10 CNN Hero will receive a $50,000 grant to further their work, and one will be named “CNN Hero of the Year” during a live broadcast on Sunday, Dec. 2.

Online voting for “CNN Hero of the Year” runs through Wednesday, Nov. 28 at CNNHeroes.com

About Strode, per CNN: For most of his teens and early twenties, Scott Strode abused drugs and alcohol. When he realized at age 24, that his addictions were out of control, he finally got clean, and sought a new social circle and activities that would help maintain his sobriety. Scott found what he needed at the gym, and eventually became a triathlete and mountain climber. In 2007, he decided to help others enjoy this healthy ‘high.’ He started Phoenix Multisport, a nonprofit that provides free athletic activities and a sober support community to more than 6,000 participants in Colorado.

NBC’s decision to carry the Giants-Cowboys football game rather than Democratic National Convention coverage Wednesday night paid dividends in terms of ratings — if not in terms of civic responsibility. (KUSA-Channel 9 tried unsuccessfully to get a feed of the DNC coverage to put on KTVD but couldn’t get the rights. That would have been a perfect use of its sister station, but MSNBC has exclusive cable/satellite rights to the convention and NBC didn’t join the pool due to its NFL football.)

For the 8-9:30 p.m. block, which coincided with the night’s climactic speech by former President Bill Clinton in Charlotte, NBC’s football telecast on KUSA scored an 11.6 rating, 26.9 share among voting age viewers (18+). That translates to some 339,000 people in this market watching the game on Channel 9, a ratings victory.

Overall, however, 2,000 more voting age viewers in this market tuned in the political convention than the football game. The competition showing DNC coverage –locally KRMA, KCNC, KMGH, MSNBC, Fox News and CNN — scored 341,000 people combined.

NBC is bragging about how well its coverage of the first night of the Democratic National Convention did in the ratings. On Tuesday, a network release said, “more Americans turned to NBC News for coverage of the first night of the 2012 Democratic National Convention than any other broadcast or cable television network.”

So naturally NBC will punt on night two of the DNC. Instead of offering live coverage from Charlotte, like ABC and CBS, NBC will stick to football (Giants v. Cowboys).

Jim Lehrer will moderate the presidential debate set for Oct. 3 at Denver’s DU. Lehrer isn’t a first-timer: he kept order when Barack Obama and John McCain debated in 2008. And he subsequently said he’d never do it again.

Never say never.

The moderator and date lineup announced Monday: PBS’ Lehrer will moderate the first presidential debate on Oct. 3 at the University of Denver. Candy Crowley, host of CNN’s “State of the Union,” will host the second — a town hall format — on Oct. 16 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, Long Island.

Don Lemon will serve as anchor, live in Aurora (where he’s been reporting for days) to introduce the taped segments and to add any last minute information.

The hour includes profiles of the 12 victims, a feel for the event as seen through the prism of Columbine, a segment on the suspect with interviews with his former elementary school teacher and classmates, stories of ER doctor Comilla Sasson, father Tom Sullivan (who lost his son, Alex), a local gun range owner, and others. The documentary also profiles the city itself. Special attention is paid to the community’s efforts to block the suspect’s name. CNN is “trying to be sensitive…we are not glorifying him in any way,” a spokeswoman said.

Political coverage is taking new forms as newspapers, websites, cable networks and broadcasters search for digital options. If they’re this slick tonight, imagine what November will look like.

The New York Times took the next step in showing how newspaper folk can evolve. Columnists talking, editors conferring, political experts chiming in, in the newsroom, on camera. Of course they often looked uncomfortable, and the whole thing had an intriguing amateur gloss to it. But this is how formerly ink-stained wretches become digital content providers in real time.

Now that real-time maps have become fairly standard (like those on the Denver Post’s website), this is the way forward.

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.